New York Part 3

The day before Hurricane Sandy hit the city and got us stuck indoors, we took advantage of the somewhat ok weather and continued venturing around the city. We started off at Grand Central.

Massive place! And the Apple Store! lol

Yeah I know, awkward. Just let me be.

Aries!

Our tour guide/host, Makoy.

Love this market area in Grand Central.

We came back later on that week to cure Amado's cannoli fix. The place he originally wanted to go to was closed due to the hurricane.

Of all places to go to and buy ginger for Arroz Caldo, this is where we ended up.
I wanted to cook something while cooped up at Makoy's place during the hurricane.

Shhhhhhhhh....

Little Italy or as Makoy refers to as "Tourist Trap". Which happens to be next to Chinatown where again, we had some ice cream after some soup dumplings from Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (another must visit place that was on Amado's list).

After fueling up with some lattes and completing what was on our souvenirs list, we made our way to Brooklyn. Walking the bridge wasn't so bad. Yeah it was packed with tourists, bikers yelling "heads up" and people annoyingly stopping in the middle of the walkway to take photos, oh that was us, but for me Brooklyn was so worth it. DapperLou.com painted such a great imagery of what Brooklyn is all about and I totally understood it when we were there, even if it was during night time.

Brooklyn is <3>

If we were to move to the East Coast, it would have to be to Brooklyn.

New York pizza was also on Amado's list so we made our way to Grimaldi's.

The line for this pizzeria was pretty long but it's worth waiting in line for.

(Amado's photos: pizza, pizza)

Yey, another picture of us together!
Makoy was uneasy using my camera. I guess I make it sound so complicated when giving instructions on how to use it. I think it turned out great though.

I feel bad when I see people taking photos in front of an amazing cityscape at night and end up disappointed with the outcome. Using the on-camera flash specially if the camera is at a great distance from you is pretty much pointless. You'll just end up with a flat and dark photo.

Just have your subjects use their phones, turn the phone's camera on video mode, turn the flash on and point it (angled) at their faces. It might seem tacky at first but I think it looks better. 

30 Rock

We didn't get to go ice skating at the Rockefeller Center :(
Amado, next time?

Amado, Chic and Makoy at Central Park before we convinced her into buying a bag.

Things that I didn't get to capture but luckily Amado was always Instagram ready:
Magnolia Bakery, The Mansion Diner, Dunkin Donuts, Gray's Papaya
(please don't judge us, I'm well aware that all we did was eat)

Thanks again Makoy for making our vacation hassle free by giving us a place to stay and taking us around.
The hurricane made it a very eventful trip and we still enjoyed it.